Woods returns to save golf from soccer

Tuesday

Jun 24, 2014 at 12:01 AM

"Golf is dead." — Friedrich Nietzsche

By David Whitley

"Golf is dead." — Friedrich Nietzsche

Forgive me for being pretentious enough to quote Nietzsche. Actually, I'm misquoting the German philosopher, who in 1882 went on a famous "God is Dead" tangent. The point is the past 24 hours has verified that God has taken a 4-iron and whacked golf back to the WNBA netherworld.

Kevin Streelman birdied the final seven holes Sunday to win the Travelers Championship by one stroke over Sergio Garcia. Yeah, it wasn't a major and Tiger Woods wasn't involved, meaning it was a typical PGA Tour stop.

Only it wasn't.

Making birdies on seven straight holes is unheard of. HAVING to make seven straight birdies in order to win is lunar landing stuff.

The story was universally ignored, even in the deadest sports time of the year. All that's really going on is the World Cup, and a historic golf achievement got about a millionth the attention that some Portuguese guy got by heading in a tying goal in the round-of-32 match against the USA.

Golf is now getting blown away by soccer. That I can understand. But the PGA Tour also got its publicity butt kicked by the LPGA, where Michelle Wie won a major after 1,294 tries to prove she isn't all legs and hype. Other news items that overshadowed Streelman's streak:

Carmelo Anthony opting out of his Knicks' deal. Carl Edwards winning at Sonoma. LeBron James' wife hinting on Instagram that her hubby might be returning to the Cavaliers. NFL lineman/relationship counselor Darnell Dockett tweeting that he understood where O.J. Simpson was coming from. Carl Edwards' wife hinting that he might be moving the Cleveland to open a gas station. O.J. Simpson tweeting that he knows where Dockett is coming from.

I could understand if Streelman had shot a routine 69 to win by three shots. But he did the impossible. And it wasn't just a sports story. Straight out of the Phil Mickelson Choreography Manual, the final putt dropped and Streelman kissed his wife and infant daughter, Sophie.

His wife, Courtney, had a rare liver condition that made for a dramatic, death-defying delivery on Dec. 26. It's the kind of story that NBC usually has to make up in order to market Olympic lugers. The reaction:

Crickets.

Thank God there wasn't a big cricket match in Pakistan Sunday, or that would have gotten more attention than the PGA stop. The obvious culprit here is Woods, who ditched the Tour in favor of getting his back repaired.

Ratings have completely tanked. The only people paying attention to golf are golf fans. If you're not a golf fan, odds are you stopped reading this 10 paragraphs ago and I'm just exercising my fingers on the keyboard.

As a golf fan, I'm pleased that I can at least type that Woods is returning this week. Tiger's coming back with his new-and-improved back will get more network analysis than Iraq's civil war.

Golf is not dead!

It's just that we won't always have Woods and his back to kick around. And if this is a preview of Life After Tiger, guys like Streelman might as well move to Portugal and start knocking in balls with their heads.

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